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Clovis Police present five-year Measure Y staffing plan aiming to rebuild investigations, traffic and homeless outreach
Summary
Police Chief Kirk Fleming outlined a five-year plan funded by Measure Y that would add professional and sworn staff, restore specialty units, expand traffic enforcement and build a real-time crime center and drone responders. Council requested continued review and budget-level detail.
Police Chief Kirk Fleming presented a detailed five-year staffing and program plan tied to Measure Y revenue during the Feb. 20 council meeting, seeking to restore units cut over the prior decade and to add investigators, traffic officers, homeless liaisons and professional support staff.
Chief Fleming told the council the department has grown to 125 sworn officers (with five funded by a retail theft grant) but remains below historic per-capita staffing; he urged the council that Measure Y provides a chance to restore a "30/30" staffing balance between proactive and reactive duties. The plan asks for 37 sworn and 18 professional positions over five years (55 positions total) to bring investigative capacity, traffic enforcement and community-response teams closer to the levels recommended in earlier staffing studies.
Key elements in year one include adding three sworn officers, an animal-services officer, a community-service officer and records staff; the department is sequencing hires so newly trained officers can be released from patrol and redeployed into specialty units. Fleming highlighted several recent initiatives: an added weekend swing shift that raised proactive activity 23% in a six-month comparison; an organized retail theft grant that produced hundreds of arrests; and a mental-health liaison pilot that chief staff said reduced repeat mental-health calls by 20% in one year.
Fleming said the city currently operates at roughly 0.85 sworn officers per 1,000 residents and that the five-year plan would raise that figure toward a more robust level (staff modeled 1.15 sworn per 1,000 at plan completion under population growth assumptions). He emphasized flexibility: "This plan will be reevaluated every three to six months," Fleming said, reflecting changing crime trends and council priorities.
Council members asked about training needs, technology (including a real-time crime center and a drone-first responder program), and the relationship with Clovis Unified for youth services. Fleming said the department intends to work with the schools to re-establish a school-based officer or partnership and to keep community-oriented programs such as explorers and community education.
Chief Fleming asked council for direction; staff will include the police requests in the citywide five-year forecast and return to council with precise budget numbers and prioritization.
